Thought I’m now a Puerto Rico resident, I’ll be spending the holidays with family on the mainland. This being so close to WDW Marathon Weekend, I thought, why not stay an extra week with my parents in North Carolina and then fly direct to WDW? Brilliant!
And it is brilliant. Time- and money-saving! Of course, there is one hiccup: there are, like, 3 flights a day out of Wilmington International Airport.
This is an exaggeration… if you’re talking about flights. It is true that ILM* services only 3 airlines. I don’t know how you can very well get off calling yourself an international airport with a scant 3 available airlines, but there you are. And of course none of these airlines are my beloved Southwest. Harrumph.
* Those of you familiar with the area may say: did you check the Myrtle Beach airport? I did; none of the flight options were sufficiently superior to add an hour-and-change drive to my morning. But I like your thoroughness. Good show, good show!
But then, of 3 airlines, 1 must be capable of jetting me down to Orlando, yes? Sure – if I want take accept a either slightly time-consuming layover that requires a heart-poundingly short turnaround between flights OR a very time-consuming layover with a helluva lot of downtime between flights. I mean, yes, there were a handful of options that would get me down to Orlando in time… provided nothing went wrong.
Did I say “in time”? I did, because generally speaking I fly down the day before my races. I’ve found it gives me less time to build my anxiety (that’s right, kids, I’m high-functioning high-anxiety!). This does of course mean that I have only one day to get to the expo and pick up my bib before closing, but historically I’ve come from BWI. This major Southwest hub has, like, 87 direct flights to Orlando per day starting at around 6am. Worst case scenario, I hop the next one I can squeeze onto. You can even read this personal case in point if you don’t believe me.
Not so coming from Wilmington. My best bet would get me to Orlando around 11:30am. Not bad, right? Not bad at all, except that it involved a layover in Atlanta. If I missed my intended flight, the next one didn’t get me to MCO until 2pm, assuming there was even room for me on it, and if that didn’t work out…
High-anxiety people, I think you see where I’m going with this. Yes! I threw money at the problem!
That’s right, I secured a second night at Pop and am now flying down to Orlando on Thursday. I won’t arrive in Orlando until early afternoon, but it’s cool! I’ve got time! I’ll go to the expo tomorrow!
And, ooh, maybe buy an Annual Pass…?
Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!
Get an AP!! And I feel you on the small airports. We're flying from Long Island in December because we're going with my parents and their airport only has 2 airlines. Luckily one of them is Southwest!
I just checked the site and APs have gotten CRAZY expensive!!! … but I'll probably get one anyway. >D